Samsung Samples New MLC-Based SSDs for Enterprise

Samsung Electronics, a leading producer of NAND flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs), on Monday said that it had begun sampling of SSDs that are based on multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory with toggle DDR interface. The new drives are designed for performance-demanding enterprise customers.

The new line of SSDs from Samsung includes 100GB, 200GB and 400GB models. The drives employ 30nm-class MLC NAND flash chips with a toggle DDR interface and a controller that uses a Serial ATA-300 interface. As a result, the new drives can process random read commands at 43 000 input/outputs per second (IOPS) and random writes at 11 000 IOPS. According to Samsung, such levels of performance closely approaches or even exceeds some of the SLC NAND-based SSDs now in the marketplace.

In addition, the new Samsung SSDs feature an ‘end-to-end data protection’ function with advanced data encryption algorithm to assure reliability and security for the drive.

“As more and more server makers are adopting SSDs for use in eco-friendly platforms that consume less electrical power, the need for high-density SSDs in the server market is growing rapidly. While Samsung is already well situated in the SSD market for enterprise servers with high-performance SSDs using single-level-cell (SLC) NAND flash memory, we are now expanding our line-up to include high-density SSDs using MLC NAND flash memory," said Byungse So, senior vice president of memory product planning and application engineering team at Samsung Electronics.

With the new SSDs, Samsung widens its range of SSD densities for server and storage applications to include 2.5" 50, 60, 100 and 120GB SSDs using SLC NAND flash memory, and 2.5" 100, 200 and 400GB SSDs using MLC NAND flash memory. Samsung also now has 3.5" SLC-based SSDs in 100 and 200GB densities.

According to Gartner, shipments of SSDs for servers and enterprise storage systems will increase to 6.3 million units in 2014 from 324 thousand units in 2009. In revenue, the SSD enterprise market is expected to grow more than seven times from $485 million to $3.6 billion during the same period.

Starting next month, Samsung will begin mass producing its new MLC-based enterprise drives.